History and Present Condition of Our Geographical Knowledge of Madagascar

History and Present Condition of Our Geographical Knowledge of MadagascarAuthor(s): James Sibree, JuniorSource: Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography,New Monthly Series, Vol. 1, No. 10 (Oct., 1879), pp. 646-665Published by: Wiley on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of BritishGeographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1800562 .

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646 HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION

History and Present Condition of our Geographical Knowledge of

Madagascar. By the Eev. James Sibree, junior.

Map, p. 688.

History.?Although only seen by Europeans within the last 380 years, the great African island of Madagascar has been known to the Arabs for

many centuries, probably for at least a thousand years past; and also, but

perhaps not for so long a time, to the Indian traders of Cutch and Bom?

bay.* The former, indeed, have left ineffaceable traces of their influence in the words they introduced into the Malagasy language, principaUy in the names of the days and months, and in those connected with divination and astrology; and also in the various superstitions they engrafted upon the original religious belief and charm-worship of the

inhabitants.f But even before the Arabian intercourse, it seems probable that the

Phcenician traders, in some of those long voyages made by " the ships of

Tarshish" (1 Kings x. 22), touched at Madagascar, or at least obtained information about the island. For it is mentioned by some of the classical writers under various names: thus, Ptolemy in his ' Tabulse'

appears to refer to it under the name of Menuthias ; % and Pliny writes about an island which, in the opinion of many authors, could hardly be

any other than Madagascar, under the name of Cerne. ? And it has been

supposed to be obscurely indicated in the book ' De Mundo,' ascribed to Aristotle, under the name of Phanbalon \\ (or Phebol).

Some other names are also given to Madagascar by early writers: thus, in a quaint old book published in 1609 by Hieronymus Megiserus, entitled '

Beschreibung der Mechtigen und Weitberhumbten Insul

Madagascar' (Altenbourg in Meissen), it is stated that Arrian calls it Menutheseas, Stephanus Byzantinus, Menuthis, and Diodorus Siculus, Iamboli. Tharetus is also quoted as saying that it was called Pacras, on account of the many tortoises found there; afterwards Albargra, then

Manutia-Alphil, and then Magadascar, a corruption of the-name of Maga- doxo, on the mainland of Afriea, whose king is said to have invaded the island. Finally, this word was changed to Mae%ascar. So runs the

* See Sir Bartle Frere's despatehes in Blue Book on the East African Slave Trade. f See Kev. L. Dahle in the * Antananarivo Annual/ No. ii., pp. 75-91. | " Huie se proeesso promontorio hodie Mosambique adjaeet ab aestivo ortu Insula

nomine Menuthias; eujus positio 85 Austral. 12 ? 0 " (lib. iv. eap. 9). ? ??Contra Sinum Persieum Cerne noniinetur Insula adversa JSthiopise, eujus neque

magnitudo, neque intervallum a eontinente eonstat, iEtkiopas tantum populos habere traditur " (lib. vi. eap. 31). The bishop appointed to Madagascar four years ago has adopted this name " Cerne " as that of his see on his official seal.

|| " Queis tamen ipsis magnitudine nee Tabrobane eedit, nec ea eui Phebol nomen est, hsee ad Arabicum Sinum."--'De Mundo; Ad Alexandrum/ 393, 21.



OF OUR GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE OF MADAGASCAR. 647

account, some of the particulars of which are probably not very reliable, although they may possess a basis of fact. *

Madagascar is mentioned by several of the Arabian writers, being known to them also by various names: as Serandah and Ghebona ; and by the geographers Edrisi and Abulfeda (twelfth and thirteenth centuries) under the strangely different titles of Bhelon (or Phenbalon), Quambalon

(or Chambalon), Zaledz (also variously spelt), and Gezirat-al-Komr (or Island of the Moon).

The country was first made known to (modern) European nations

by the celebrated Venetian traveiler Marco Polo, in the thirteenth century. He, however, did not himself visit the island, but heard various accounts of it during his travels in Asia, under the name of Magaster or Madei-

gascar. A chapter in his book of travels (33, bk. iii., Yule's ed., pp. 345-354) is devoted to a description of it; but much of what he relates is evidently confused with accounts of Zanzibar and countries on the mainland of Africa, as he says that ivory is one of the chief productions, and that elephants, giraffes, and other animals (which never existed in the island), were numerous. His well-known account of the rukh or

gigantic bird, long thought to be entireiy fabulous, has during the last few years been discovered to have a basis of fact in the existence of the now-extinct JEpyornis, a struthious bird allied to the New Zealand Moa, and which produced the largest of all known eggs.

It was not until the commencement of the sixteenth century that

Europeans set foot upon the great island. Towards the end of the pre? vious century the adventurous Portuguese navigators, Bartholomew Diaz and Yasco de Gama reached the southernmost portions of Africa and rounded the Cape of Good Hope, thus discovering the sea route to India and the further East. On the Mozambique coast they found numbers of Arabs trading with India and well acquainted with Madagascar. But in 1505 King Manoel of Portugal sent out a great expedition of twenty-two ships to the Indies, under the command of Don Francisco de Almeida, the first viceroy, with orders to build fortresses at Sofala and Quiloa for the

protection of the Portuguese commerce in Africa. Juan de Nova, whose name is preserved in that of a small island in the Mozambique Channel, sailed in this expedition. Almeida sent back in the beginning of the

following year eight ships loaded with spices to Portugal, under the command of Fernando Soares. On their way they discovered on the

* Since writing the above I have referred to the original texts of some of the classical authors referred to by the old German writer, as well as to his own book; and also to a learned French author, Gossellin, who, in his work entitled ' Recherches sur la Geogra? phie Systematique et Positive des Anciens' (4 vols., Paris, 1813), disputes the opinion of earlier writers that Madagascar was mentioned by classical authors under the names of Cerne and Menuthias (tom. i. pp. 80, 191-193). With regard to the former of these names, I think his opinion is correct, but I am not so sure about the second. Gossellin maintains that Menuthias was the name of a very small island in the estuary of one of the great rivers on the East African coast.




first of February, 1506, the east coast of Madagascar.* From this it appears clear that Soares, and not Almeida, as commonly said in

histories, was the real discoverer of the island. In that same year Joao Gomez d'Abreu discovered the west coast of

Madagascar on the 10th of August, St. Lawrence's day, from which cir- cumstance, following the usual custom of the early Spanish and Portu?

guese navigators, the island received the name of San Louren^o, which it retained for more than a hundred years. He gave the name of Bahia Formosa to the bay which he first entered, apparently the bay between Point Barrow and Point Croker on the south-west coast. The famous navigator, Tristan da Cunha, who was sent out to India in the same year, also heard of the island through one of his captains, Eodrigo Pereira Coutinho. This officer had been obliged to take refuge in one of the southern ports of Madagascar from a storm which scattered Da Cunha's squadron off the Cape of Good Hope. Hearing glowing accounts of the newly-found country from his subordinate, Da Cunha visited various -parts of the same coast, making with his own hand a chart of what he discovered, and was accordingly, though of course

mistakenly, celebrated in song by his countryman Camoens in the Lusiad (c. x., s. 39), as the discoverer of Madagascar:?

" Green Madagasear's flowery dale shall swell His echoed fame, till ocean's south most bound O'er isles and shores unknown his fame resound."f

He reached the northern end of the island on Christmas Day, and

accordingly gave it the name of Cape Natal, a name which, however, it has not retained, but has been for long known as Cape Amber, or Ambro.

The ship of Gomez d'Abreu doubled the northern cape, and running along the east coast reached the mouth of the Eiver Matitanana on the

south-east, where he landed. In a letter dated Mozambique, 8th February, 1507, to King Manoel, from the celebrated Afonso d'Alboquerque, who was with Da Cunha's expedition, he speaks of the discovery of the

island; so that within a short time several of the most intrepid Portu?

guese navigators discovered various portions of the Madagascar coast while on their voyages to or from the far east?in fact they seem to have almost, if not quite, circumnavigated the island.

During the early times of the French intercourse with Madagascar * See * The Life of Prince Henry of Portugal, surnamed The Nayigator,' Major's

ed., London, 1868, p. 415. f Mickle's translation of the Lusiad. See Lyons McLeod, * Madagascar and its

People,' p. 6. The original Portuguese runs thus:? " Pelo Cunha tambem, que nunca extinto Sera seu nome em todo o mar que lava As Ilhas do Austro, e praias, que se chamam De Sao Lourenco, e em todo o Sul ee affam."




(reign of Henri IY.), they called it by the name of He Dauphine, but this appellation was never accepted by other nations.

A few words may here be said about the name by which the island has been known for the last 200 years.

There is much reason to believe that Madagascar is not a native

name, but one given to the country by foreigners, and has only in modern times been accepted by the inhabitants. The spelling of the word in its present form is opposed to the laws of the native ortho?

graphy, which does not allow the joining of two such consonants as s and c (c, moreover, is not used), and all native words end in a vowel. Nosin-dambo or " Isle of wild hogs," was a name occasionally given to it, but when the Malagasy speak of the whole of the island they usually eall it Izao rehetra izao, " This all," or Izao tontblo izao, " This whole," thinking, like many insular people, that their own country was the most important part of the world, and that the Arabs and other

foreigners who visited the north-west coast, came from some insigni- ficant islands across the sea. Another term, somewhat poetical in form, and occasionally used by the people, is Ny anwon* ny riaka, i. e. " The

(land) in the midst of the moving waters," a term which might be used of any island, but is only applied to Madagascar itself, nbsy being the word employed to denote the smaller islands off the mainland. This term was engraved on the huge silver cofiin of the first Eadama, who was there called Tompon' ny anivon1 ny riaka, " Lord of the island," as above described. The form of the word,* like the name of the inhabi? tants of the country, Malagasy (also probably not a native one), seems to indicate an African origin, so that possibly there may be some foundation of truth in the accounts given by the German writer already quoted from. Ma, it is well known, is the usual prefix to words

indicating tribal names on the African continent, as Makololo, Mata- bele, &c.

The early accounts given of Madagascar by voyagers and other writers are full of glowing and extravagant praises of its fertility and natural wealth. But in all this, of course, it formed no exception to other newly-found countries, for the imagination of people of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries invested with a halo of beauty and mystery all the strange new lands which were being yearly discovered by the bold seamen of Portugal and Spain, and of England and Holland. The luxuriance of the tropical vegetation of the New World and the far Eastern Archipelago, and the undoubted wealth in precious metals of some of those regions, made every fresh addition to their geography a possible El-Dorado, with gold and gems waiting to be collected in every stream, and precious spices to be gathered from every tree. The very

* In Copland and other writers the island is called Madecassa, which, by substituting k for c, would be a correct enough native word. In many books the people are called Madecasse, but the origin of these forms of the name is obscure.

No. X.?Oct. 1879.] 2 u




title-pages of some of the early books upon Madagascar are an eloquent

panegyric on the resources and wealth of the island; while their quaint descriptions, as well as the strong religious feeling so many of them

evince, make them by no means uninteresting reading. Although the Portuguese discovered the island they made nc*

lengthened occupation of any part of it. Probably they found that their extensive possessions in South America and Afriea, and the Malay Archipelago, demanded all their strength to occupy; and so their colony was soon abandoned. For a few years, towards the close of the sixteenth century (1595-98), the Dutch had some little intercourse with

Madagascar, but were not much impressed in its favour, for they lost

through sickness so many of their number that an island where they landed was called " The Dutchmen's Graveyard." A book written hj Johan Hugen von Lindschot (1628) describes these voyages; and it is evident that the Dutch paid some considerable attention to the country, for two of the very earliest books upon Madagascar were published at Amsterdam in 1603, both of them giving vocabularies of Malagasy words.*

As the Portuguese discovered Madagascar, probably the earliest

descriptions of the country are to be found in Portuguese books, notably in the ' Commentarios do grande Afonso d'Alboquerque' (Lisbon, 1576,

fol.), but I find there is little of interest in this work.

Next in date come the two Dutch linguistic works already men?

tioned, and then the little German work of Megiserus, from which

quotations have been made as to the early names of the island. The

title-page of this book (translated into English) promises to give us:? " A genuine, thorough, and ample as well as historical and chrono-

graphical description of the exceedingly rich, powerful and famous

Island of Madagascar, called also St. Lawrence; together with an

account of all its qualities, peculiarities, inhabitants, animals, fruits and

vegetables; also a history of what has happened there before and since its discovery."

The title-page, like those of other books we shall have occasion to

mention, leads one therefore to expect much valuable information. But

except particulars about the names given to the island at that period, there is little of value to be learnt about either country or people, while some of the same mistakes are made as to the productions as are found in Marco Polo's account. At the end is added "A Dictionary and

Dialogues of the Madagascar Language, collected with special industry from the Portuguese, Italian, and Latin Histories and Geographies;" and this portion, more than half of the book, has considerable interest, the greater part of the words being easily recognisable. It has a small

map, and seven or eight engravings of the people and of the animal

and vegetable productions.' See ' Antananarivo Annual,' No. ii. p. 123.




The earliest English book upon Madagascar of which I have any knowledge is by one Walter Hamond, surgeon, and published in 1640, entitled, 'A Paradox: Proving the Inhabitants of the Island, called

Madagascar, or St. Lawrence (in Things temporal,) to be the happiest People in the World." * This work may be almost regarded as a satire

upon the extravagance and luxury of the times, for its general pur- port is to prove that the inhabitants of Madagascar in their poverty and

ignorance are much better off than civilised peoples, being not much troubled with clothing or ornaments, or with the fatigues of commerce,

navigation, and civilisation, the varieties of food and drink, and the evils arising from the use of gunpowder and the arms of European nations. All this is argued out in a comically serious style. Possibly a

diligent search in the larger libraries would discover earlier books, or at least pamphlets or tracts on Madagascar, and doubtless there are many notices of the country to be found in the narratives of the early English voyagers.

The same author published three years later another book, whose

title-page is curious from its quaintness and as showing the great expectations formed of the island. It is as follows :?

"Madagascar, the richest and most frvitefvll island in the world. Wherein the temperature of the clymate, the nature of the inhabitants, the commodities of the countrie, and the facility and benefit of a

plantation by our people there are compendiously and truely described. Dedicated to the Honourable Iohn Bond, Governour of the island, whose

proceeding is authorized for this expedition, both by the King and Parliament. By Walter Hamond. London: printed for Nicholas

Bourne, and are to bee sold at his Shop, at the South Entrance of the

Eoyall Exchange. 1643." The promise of the title-page (as in the case of the German book

already described) is hardly borne out by the book itself, which does not contain much of value except some information about the author's expe? riences with the people, chiefly those about St. Augustine's Bay on the south-west coast. He seems to have been greatly impressed by the

honesty and good faith of the inhabitants; again and again is this mentioned in such words as " in all our trayding with them we never sustained so much as the losse of one bead." He even says,

" they

retaine the first incorrupt innocence of man," and are " a people ap- proaching in some degree neere Adam, naked without guilt, and inno-

cent, not by a forc't vertue, but by ignorance of evill, and the creatures as innocent and serviceable to man as they were before his transgression." (How wofully, according to all accounts, must they have depreciated since then !) We find, however, in the book that among these innocent

people wars were going on between them and the neighbouring tribes, * Reprinted in ' The Harleian Miscellany, a Collection of Scarce, Curious, and En-

tertaining Pamphlets and Tracts as well in Manuscript as in Print.' London, 1808. 2 u 2




as there still are, and probably always have been. There is a notice of some of the valuable trees of the country, ebony, tamarind, and others, and of a remarkable tree he calls the " flesh-tree," probably a dragon- tree, yielding a sanguine-coloured sap. The book contains an urgent appeal to his countrymen to

" go in and possess the land," which " doth

here by me friendly and lovingly invite our Natione to take some com-

passion of her nakedenesse, her poverty and her simplicity, both corporall and spirituall, and doth earnestly and affectionately even beg of us to redeeme her out of her miserable thraldome under the tyranny of Satan

[curiously inconsistent this with the previous eulogy of the people], to be united with us into the fellowship of the sons of God by our union in Christ Jesus." Who this Hon. John Bond, " Governour and Captaine- Generall of Madagascar," was I have been unable to discover, or to find what claim he had to such large powers in the great island.

In the same decade of the seventeenth century, other books on Mada?

gascar were also published, the next in date being one with an ex-

tremely long title, which is also perhaps worth quoting nearly in full, not only for its quaint language, but as affording additional evidence of the sanguine expectations formed respecting the island. It runs thus:?

" A briefe Discovery or Description of the most famous island of Madagascar or St. Lawrence in Asia neere unto East India. With relation of the Healthfulness, Pleasure, Fertility and Wealth of that

Country, comparable, if not transcending all the Easterne parts of the

World, a very Earthly Paradise; a most fitting and desirable place to settle an English Colony and Plantation there rather than in any other

parts of the knowne World. Also the condition of the Natives, there

inhabiting, their Affability, Habit, Weapons and Manner of living, the

plenty, and cheapnesse of Food, Flesh, Fish; and Fowle, Oringes, and

Lemonds, Amber-Greece, Gold, Tortle-Shels, and Drugs and many other Commodities fit for trade and commerce, to be had and gotten there at

oheaper Eates than in India or else-where. Also trading from port to

port all India and Asia over, and the great profit gained thereby; the chiefest place in the World to enrich men by Trade, to and from India, Persia, Moco, Achine, China and other rich Easterne Kingdoms. It

being the fittest place for a Magazine or Store-house of Trade between

Europe and Asia, farre exceeding all other plantations in America or else-where. Also the excellent meanes and accommodation to fit the

planters there with all needfull and superfluous for back and belly (out of India neere adjacent, at one fourth of the price and cheaper than it will cost in England; yea, Fat Bullocks, Sheep, Goats, Swine, Poultry, Eice, (and Wheat and Barley reasonable, etc.) exceeding cheape, for the value of 12 pence or one shilling English, will purchase or buy of the Natives as much as 5, 6, 7 pounds or more in England, in this famous Island at their first arrival, which no other country hath afforded. By




Eichard Boothby, Merchant. London: Printed by E. G. for John

Hardesty at the Signe of the Black-spread Eagle in Duck-Lane, 1664." It seems from the preface to Boothby's work, which is a small octavo of

seventy-two pages, that two years previous to the publication of this book there had been a project to found an English plantation in Madagascar, Prince Kupert having been named at the Privy Council board as Yiceroy for King Charles L, from whom he was to have had twelve men-of-war and thirty merchantmen to form the colony. The Governor and Com? mittee of the East India Company were also ordered to give all possible assistance to the enterprise. Kupert, however, going away to the Conti? nent, the Earl of Arundel, Earl-Marshal of England, was appointed; and it appears that that nobleman had also written a book on the subject, urging the desirability of forming a magazine or victualling station on the island. However, the calling of the parliament immediately pre- ceding the Long Parliament, and the political troubles which soon ensued, put a stop to this projected English colony in Madagascar. It is stated in Boothby's book that the island had been previously visited

by other distinguished Englishmen, viz. the ambassadors from Charles I. to the King of Persia, who landed at Madagascar on their way to the East.

The appointment of Prince Kupert called forth another book upon the island, but this time in the shape of a poem, by Sir William Davenant, entitled 'Madagascar, with other Poems, by W. Davenant, Knight' (London, 1648). This production occupies only twenty-one pages of

print, and gives no information about Madagascar itself, being simply a

complimentary effusion, " written to the most illustrious Prince Rupert." Following the strange conceits common to the literary productions of the time, such as are seen in Beaumont and Fletcher, Donne, Herbert, and other writers, the poem is in the form of a dream, in which the

country where the Prince was going is described in an inflated style, with extravagant laudation of his patron, so that even the sun is described to be wholly absorbed in what Rupert is supposed to have

conquered:? . . . . " The good old Planet's business is Of late, only to visit what is his;"

while as to the government of the Prince, " Chronologers pronounce his style The first true monarch of the golden isle; An isle so seated for predominance Where naval strength its power can so advance."

The supposed riches of the country are next described, the colonists

employing themselves " In virgin mines, where shining gold they spy, Some root up coral-trees where mermaids lie Sighing beneath those precious boughs, and die."




Some from " old oysters" rifle pearls, " Whose ponderous size sinks weaker divers. Their weight would yoke a tender lady's neck. Some search the rocks, till each have found A saphyr, ruby, and a diamond."

The poem is a poor enough production in itself, but has a certain interest as showing the extravagant notions then entertained about the wealth of distant countries. But it nevertheless met with great com- mendation from the poet's contemporaries, Endymion Porter saying that it was a

." poem in so sweet a style As yet was never lauded in this isle."

Another of the poet's friends, Sir John Suckling, Comptroller of the Household to King Charles L, wrote a sonnet, entitled " To my friend Will Davenant, on his Poem of Madagascar." The fifth decade of the seventeenth century was thus, it appears, most prolific in works upon the great African island.

Towards the end of the century an account was written (but not

published until some years later) of the adventures and extreme hard-

ships suffered by an English sailor upon a small island off the western coast of Madagascar. This was entitled " A Eelation of three Years'

Sufferings of Eobert Everard upon the Island of Assada, near Madagas? car, in a voyage to India, in the year 1686, And of his wonderful

preservation and deliverance and arrival at London, Anno 1693." * This account, which occupies twenty-three pages of small folio print, con? tains several interesting particulars of the customs of the people, among which is the statement that on one occasion twenty children were circum- cised by the women. The writer had evidently a hard time during his three years' residence; for although he made shot for the king, because he could not also find gun-flints he was turned out of doors and left to shift for himself. He obtained food in the shape of fruit and roots, shell-fish and turtles, but he had to lodge under a tree only, for two years and nine months, although on one occasion he says it rained continuously for three months. As he was quite naked he kepfc a fire buraing for warmth, not being allowed to enter the houses. Eventually he became (no wonder) very ill, and at his request was bought by an Arab, and at last taken to India, where he obtained his liberty. This island of "Assada "

is probably one of those numerous ones off the north-west coast of

Madagascar. The last of these early books which can be here noticed is that by

Eobert Drury, an English lad who, at the commencement of the last

century, went as a passenger to the East on board an Indiaman named the

Begrave. On their homeward voyage the vessel was wrecked on the south- * Pages 259-282 of * A Collection of .Voyages and Travels, some now first printed

from the Original Manuscripts, ete.' London: Churchul, 1732.




west coast of Madagascar, and owing to imprudent conduct and collisions with the natives, the whole of the ship's company and passengers were

eventually killed, with the exception of Drury and another lad, whose lives were spared. He thus became a slave, and remained as such in the island for fifteen years (1702-1717), meeting with varied experience and

many hardships, and occasionally being harshly treated, and narrowly escaping being killed. At last, however, he obtained his liberty and returned to England, afterwards writing the book describing his adven?

tures, or, possibly, had it written from his dictation. Drury being com?

paratively uneducated, the narrative is in a most artless style, with an evident impress of truth, and from its undoubted genuineness is a very valuable record of the customs of some of the Malagasy tribes at that

period, and throws important light upon many questions connected with their customs, superstitions, and beliefs. He describes their ancient and

patriarchal system of worship in connection with the bdy or household

gods; and we see the political state of that part of the island, really un- altered to the present time, in which the different tribes were constantly engaged in warfare, making raids on each other's cattle and capturing slaves. There is added to the book a pretty full vocabulary, which is one of the most valuable portions of it, the great majority of the words

being easily recognisable as identical with those in the Hova dialect; and thus giving another proof of the substantial unity of the language over portions of the island far distant from one another. Curiously onough, he gives a decidedly

" cockney

" pronunciation and spelling to

his list of Malagasy words: thus, hena (meat) he calls " henar "; vbla

(money), " voler "; and andro (day),

" hawndro," &c. From the year 1651, when a work describing a voyage to Madagascar

by one Francois Cauche, of Rouen, was issued, a considerable number of books upon the island have been published in the French language. A list of between thirty and forty of these is given by M. Barbier du

Bocage in a book entitled ' Madagascar: Possession francaise depuis 1642," the title of which work explains the interest taken in the island by the French. But it is quite an unfounded assumption to call Madagascar a French possession, and is warranted neither by conquest or treaty, or by any other claim or right; and although it is quite true that the French have for two centuries past been attempting to gain power in the

country, their colonies, or rather, military posts, have never been perma- nent, nor have they been able to maintain their hold upon any portion of the mainland. They have, however, seized the small island of St.

Marie's, off the eastern coast, and they have also possession of the island of Nbsibe, on the north-west coast; this latter was ceded to them in 1840 by the Sakalava inhabitants of that portion of Madagascar.

Maps of Madagascar.?Turning now to the maps and our present know?

ledge of the geography of the island, it may be afnrmed that a con? siderable portion of the country is still a terra incognita to us; and




notwithstanding all that has been done of late years to increase our

knowledge of it, there are extensive regions still unknown and unex?

plored. Among these may be mentioned the greater part of the triangle formed by the northern portion of the island, from Antsihanaka to the

apex of the triangle; almost all the Sakalava country on the western sea-

board; large portions of the eastern side, from the central plateau to the sea; and lastly, an extensive district to the south of the Betsileo

province, from the Bara country to the southern Cape of St. Mary. The earliest map of Madagascar which I have discovered is one in

the British Museum, and is an extremely curious specimen of charto-

graphy. The outline of the island there given is so different from the

reality, that it would hardly be recognised but for the name, " St.

Lorenzo," which is marked upon it. The towns shown on the map, six in number, are true mediseval strongholds, with walls and gates, and crowded with spires and towers, one of them boasting of a grand cathedrai! while they are all on such a scale that they would be dis-

proportionately large even if the island were only five or six miles wide.

Similarly gigantic ships, with banks of oars, are depicted along the

coast, and strange sea-monsters are here and there seen emerging from the waves around the island. From its very incorrect outline I am

strongly inclined to think that it is of considerably earlier date than that given in the catalogue, viz. 1570* (Venice); the more so as another map, also Venetian, and dated three years earlier (1567), is far more correct in outline, and the principal capes, bays, and rivers can be recognised, and are tolerably accurate as far as regards the coast-line.

Another very curious old map, on a small scale, is given in the

quaint German work ,of Megiser's already referred to. But I also find that it is taken from an earlier book, a neat little atlas of maps, with

descriptions of the different countries, entitled ' Thresor de Chartes,' and dated 1602.

A glance at several of the numerous maps of Madagascar that have been published since these dates, would lead one to suppose that what is stated above as to the incompleteness of our knowledge of the country was all a mistake. On many of these the so-called provinces are defined with a minuteness resembling that of the divisions of the counties on an Ordnance map of England; the various rivers with all their tributaries are all unhesitatingly laid down, and mountain chains of

singular regularity and wall-like straightness cross the country in all directions. Far from imitating the ingenuous confessions of ignorance shown on some maps, where

" Geographers, on pathless downs, Put elephants instead of towns,"

* I am confirmed in this opinion by a further reference to the catalogue, in which a note of interrogation is affixed both to the date and the place of publishing.




many of these early maps of Madagascar are, strange to say, the most minute and exact in their fulness of detail; and knowing how little cer?

tainly was then ascertained as to the interior of the island, we look at them with a feeling of astonishment as to whence their information could have been derived.

One of the most curious of these early maps is that prefixed to an

English edition of the Abbe Rochon's book entitled ' A Voyage to Mada?

gascar and the East Indies' (London, 1793). According to this map, no

part of the country would appear to have been unknown to the map- maker; the rivers with their tributaries have a picturesque symmetry resembling that of stately trees, and the mountains a regular cone-like outline only possessed by mountains seen on a map. But on examining the map more minutely to find out well-known places in the interior, we are puzzled to find that neither the central and most important pro? vince of Imerina, nor the capital city of Antananarivo, are shown; and it is the same with the important province of Betsileo and its chief towns; while some other places are strangely transposed on the map. Clearly this map owes more of its filling-in to a lively imagination than to any exploration of the country, notwithstanding the somewhat ambiguous assurancein its title that it is " from the original design, drawn on the

spot;" but where and what " the spot" was is not specified.* Again, take a very pretentious-looking map published by Arrow-

smith, London, and purporting to be ' Madagascar, from Original

Drawings, Sketches, and Oral Information; by J. A. Lloyd, f.r.s., &c, &c, Surveyor-General of the Mauritius.' The last edition I have seen is dated 1850. In a journey to the south-east part of Madagascar in 1876 I consulted this map on many occasions, but found that not the

slightest reliance was to be placed upon it. But on returning home, and

meeting with a pamphlet containing a paper read by Colonel Lloyd before the Royal Geographical Society on ' Madagascar' (December 10th, 1849), I discovered a clue to all this, for at page 22, in a few remarks upon the map accompanying his paper (a reduced copy of the above map), Colonel Lloyd makes this ingenuous admission: " For the detail of the interior I cannot claim the slightest pretensions to correctness. It is

only an attempt to form approximately some foundation for future

inquiries, and more correct and extensive research." And yet this map, confessedly so problematical, appears to have been the source of most

subsequent maps of the island as given in English books or published separately!

The coast-line of Madagascar, with a narrow strip of country border-

ing tbe sea, was accurately surveyed by Captain W. F. W. Owen, r.n., of H.M. ships Leven and Barracouta, about forty-seven years ago. This

* Since writing the above, I find that Rochon's map is, in its main features, little more than a eopy of that given in Flacourt's ' Histoire de la grande Isle de Madagascar/ published in 1661, a hundred and thirty years before Rochon's book.




survey was published by the Admiralty, and Captain Owen described his experiences in a book entitled ' Narrative of Voyages to Explore the Shores of Afriea, Arabia, and Madagascar, &c.' (London, 1833).

With regard to the later French maps of Madagascar, they also

appear to have been chiefly constructed from verbal information, with an occasional itinerary of a priest, or naturalist, or trader; for the in? terior detail of most of them prior to 1870 seems little more reliable than that given in the English maps. (The island has been crossed in various directions by a good many travellers, as shown in a valuable list of routes compiled by M. Grandidier, and given in a paper published in the * Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie' (Avril, 1872, pp. 408-411) ; but

very few of these travellers have left any accurate observations or scien? tific surveys of the line of country they traversed.) How some of these French maps have been constructed is amusingly described by M.

Grandidier, in a previous paper upon the island, before the Paris Geogra? phical Society. Speaking of a book by a Mons. Leguevel de Lacombe, entitled '

Voyage a Madagascar,' he says: " This writer relates that he

has at different periods traversed the island from north to south, from east to west; he gives the most precise details of his journeys. M. de Lacombe has told me, and I am myself well assured of it, with his book in my hand, that he has never left the east coast! It is from his imagination that he has drawn the accounts to which geographers have attached so much importance that the maps of Madagascar have to the

present day been constructed upon the topographical data taken from his work." *

To a French traveller, however, we owe the most accurate general map of the island yet produced. M. Alfred Grandidier, who explored the country from 1865 to 1870, published in 1871 a sketch-map of Mada?

gascar (' Esquisse d'une Carte de l'ile de Madagascar'). It is somewhat

roughly lithographed, and was merely intended to illustrate the brief

summary of his travels and explorations read before the Paris Geo?

graphical Society; but from the prospectus of his magnificent work on the island and its natural history, botany, ethnology, &c, now in pro? cess of publication, in twenty-eight quarto volumes,t a very much more elaborate and minute map of the country may be expected.

Meanwhile, this preliminary map has already done much to clear

away some traditional mistakes, and to establish two or three facts of

great interest in the physical geography of the island. The long- believed-in " central mountain chain," spoken of in almost all histories and gazetteers as traversing Madagascar from north to south, is shown to be only a map-maker's notion; instead of this there is an elevated mountainous region occupying the greater part of the central and northern portions of the island, but leaving a good deal of the west

* * Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie,' Aout, 1871, p. 82. f ?Histoire Naturelle, Physique et Politique de Madagascar.' Paris, Hachette et Cie.




coast as low-lying plains, together with the greater portion of the island south of the 23rd parallel of S. latitude. These regions are shown to consist, at least as far as is yet known, of extensive plains at a much lower altitude than the elevated granite region to the north and east.* There are, however, three strongly marked lines of mountains

running in a very regular line from north to south, in the western part of the island, and one of these appears to be almost continuous for an extent of nearly 600 miles.

The rocks in this lower western and southern region are said by M. Grandidier to be of Secondary geological formation, a statement confirmed by shells found in the same part by the Rev. J. Richard-

son, which seem to be identical with those of our Neocomian strata between the Chalk and the Oolite rocks.f In these southern and western

plains of Madagascar, it is probable that more thorough exploration and research by scientific travellers will bring to light much that is inter?

esting in geology and palseontology; for it was on the south-western coast that Grandidier discovered the fossil remains of a small hippo- potamus, of two species of sepyornis, of gigantic tortoises, and of other

long-extinct animals. These Secondary regions will most likely be found to be far richer in organic remains than the more barren and bleak granite highlands, which it seems probable are very ancient land, and where no fossil remains have yet been discovered. This granitic region, elevated from 3000 to 5000 feet above the sea, seems remarkably destitute of any trace of organisms in the shape of fossils. It consists of

long, bare, rolling moors, mostly of bright-red clay, but occasionally of a

light-brown colour, broken up in all directions by lines of hills, the

granite and basalt forming the highest points, and in Imerina often

forming enormous rounded bosses of rock, and lofty detached masses like gigantic castles and churches. In the Betsileo province to the

south, and in the Ankarana province in the far north, the most wonderful

variety of shapes and outlines are seen in the crowded mountain summits :

towers, domes, pyramids, and spires of rock are all present in grand confusion and seeming disorder. There is, however, not an extreme elevation even in the highest points, for the summits of the Ankaratra

group of peaks, nearly in the centre of the island, are a little under 9000

feet above the sea-level. These granitic highlands no doubt formed the island of Madagascar in

* M. Grandidier says, " Je vais maintenant tacher de tracer en quelques mots la physionomie generale que presente Madagascar. Cette ile comprend deux parties bien distinctes; la partie nord et est qui est toute montagneuse, la partie sud et ouest qui est relativement plate."?* Bull. de la Soc. de Geog.,' Aout, 1871, p. 100.

t These shells are species of Ammonites, Terebratula, Nerinea or Turritella, Einoce- ramus, and Bhynconella, together with an Echinoderm. Grandidier also says: " Les nerinees et autres fossiles characteristiques de Pe'tage jurassique que j'y ai recueillis, ont preuve Pexistence de terrains secondaires qui couvrent une vaste etendue dans cette ile." ?' Bull. de la Soc. de Geog.,' Aout, 1871, p. 88.




the Secondary geologic times, appearing above the waters which covered the southern and western portions as a long and narrow island, about 620 miles in length by 120 in greatest breadth, about a quarter of its present area, and not very different in size from the islands of Java or Cuba. The southern plains, at a height of only as many hundred feet above the sea as the granitic region is thousands of feet, have probably experienced much greater varieties of condition in the alternations of land and water, and consequently have had much greater fitness to be the abode of successive generations of living creatures.

This elevated region is traversed by a line of extinct volcanic craters, which are found in considerable numbers, and which have a general direction from south-east to north-west, although they are also found at the extreme northern point of the island. This volcanic belt, moreover, extends far beyond the present limits of Madagascar, viz., to the Comoro group on the north-west, and the Mascarene Islands to the east. And it is an interesting fact that although in Madagascar itself there is at present no active volcano, nor has there been, as far as is known, in the historic period, each extremity of the line is still occa?

sionally active, viz. in the island of Great Comoro, and in that of Eeunion. Subterranean forces not altogether extinct are, "however, shown by the hot springs which are found in several parts of the country, and in the slight earthquake shocks which occur almost every year.

Another interesting physical feature of Madagascar is shown in M. Grandidier's sketch-map, namely,' the existence of an almost un- broken ring of forest, extending in a continuous line all round the

island, except at one point on the north-west coast, where, however, the lines of forest overlap each other about 100 miles, leaving an opening about 70 miles wide between them. On the eastern side this line of forest divides into two, with the long, narrow plain of Ankay and the Antsihanaka province between, but unites again to the north of the latter, where it is broadest, being about 40 miles wide. Its average breadth is about 15 miles.

On this map of M. Grandidier's most of the Hova military stations and the more important places in the interior are laid down; and

having had opportunities of testing its accuracy in more than one direction, I feel confident that it is by far the most trustworthy map of the island yet published. Indeed no previous traveller has been so

thoroughly prepared by scientific knowledge and with full appliances to make an accurate survey of the country; and as many hundreds of the principal points were fixed astronomically, a reliable basis has been formed for future work. It must, however, be remembered that even M. Grandidier has not traversed the island in every direction, and, as already remarked, extensive portions of it have still to be explored, so that there is still much to be added to this map of the French traveller and savant.




Far surpassing everything else previously attempted as a delineation of the interior, must be mentioned the map of' The Central Provinces of Madagascar,' by the Rev. Dr. Mullens, published together with his book entitled ' Twelve Months in Madagascar,' in 1875. Stretching over five degrees of latitude, from the Antsihanaka province in the north to the edge of the Bara country in the south, it depicts on a scale of twelve miles to the inch the physical features of the central portions of the island, and the sites of the chief towns and most important villages. The late Mr. James Cameron had previously fixed astrono-

mically some of the chief points in Imerina, and measured a base-line from which the triangulation was constructed, so that a reliable foundation for the map was provided, and the series of angles was extended

right into the Betsileo. This map is a great gain to our knowledge of the interior, and is full of detail. It is not strange, however, that it will in many parts require revision, while a minute comparison of it on the ground at different points with the country portrayed shows much

inequality in its execution, particularly in the relative importance given by the shading to the hills and mountains. Evidently also, as attested

by the route-lines shown on the map, extensive portions of the country, which were only seen at a distance (some not even seen at all), can only be considered as approximately correct. But it would be ungracious to dwell upon blemishes when it is such a stride towards a complete deli? neation of the interior of the country.

Since Dr. Mullens's visit several important contributions have been made towards a fuller geographical knowledge of various portions of the island not previously mapped. Among these are sketch-maps illus-

trating journeys made chiefly by members of the London Missionary Society and the Friends' Foreign Mission to the Sakalava country, due west of the capital, the Bara province in the south, the southern Tanala or forest tribes, and the south-east coast, the north-east coast and northern central portions of the island, and the north-west and ex? treme north.* The results of these journeys were embodied in a map prepared by Mr. W. Johnson, of the Friends' Mission, on the basis of Grandidier, and was lithographed at their press in Antananarivo, the work being done by native lads. The same gentleman has also pub? lished a very minute and complete map of the south-western portion of the central province. In the year 1877, a journey was made by the Rev. J. Richardson (L. M. S.), from the Betsileo province to St. Augus- tine's Bay on the south-west coast, across new ground, and thus much light was thrown upon the north-west portion of Southern Madagascar, of which the greater part is still an unknown region.

Yery recently all these later additions to our knowledge of Madagas- * See * Recent Journeys in Madagascar/ described by Rev. J. Mullens, d.d., 'Proc.

Royal Geographical Society,' Jan. 17, 1877 ; with map of ' South-east Madagascar and the Bara Country, from the surveys of Messrs. Sibree, Shaw, and Richardson.'




car have been laid down in a new general map, compiled by Dr. Mullens. This is the largest map of the country yet constructed, being on the same scale as those of the Central Prov.inces and Southern Madagascar. These are included in it, but three or four other route-maps in the north and south of the island are also given, Grandidier's sketch-map forming the authority for other parts of the country. While this map is of great value as embodying so much recent and accurate research, it does not show at all clearly the strongly-marked upper granitic region as dis?

tinguished from the western and southern lower country; the mountains and hills in this are all laid down, as far as explored, but the map does not show at a glance that these rise from a base itself elevated from 3000 to 5000 feet above the sea. No doubt it would be difficult to do

this, but certainly it is not at all impracticable to skilled chartographers. I also think that although earlier maps are doubtless very faulty, a

careful comparison of them would show enough harmony to furnish reliable data for filling in certain portions of the country which are

still left almost blank, notably the south-east corner, which is probably shown with tolerable accuracy in Flacourt's map, and in those of other

French writers. It is also to be regretted that a bolder style of lettering was not adopted for denoting the chief provinces and tribes. The names of these are not discernible except upon a minute inspection. With these

reservations, I think that Dr. Mullens has rendered valuable service to

geographical knowledge by the publication of this beautifully engraved

map. There is still, however, much to be done in all directions before we

can be said to have a tolerably complete general map of Madagascar ; while, of course, there is room for hundreds of more detailed maps of

special portions of the country. An island nearly 1000 miles long and about 350 at its greatest breadth gives

" ample space and verge

"

for map-making. Still, so far, every journey lately made appears to confirm the general truth of M. Grandidier's sketch-map as to

the broad outlines of the elevated mountainous and granitic region in the northern and central portions of the island. But we still need

much information as to the contour of this in various directions, and the

steps by which it rises up from the plains on all sides. Several sections

by the aneroid have been taken, and in one of these it would appear that due west from the capital the central plateau has a saucer-shaped hollow

in the centre, both the eastern and western edges being higher than the

intermediate portion. This, it will be remembered, is on a small scale

what the southern portion of the African continent is on a large one, as shown by Dr. Livingstone's researches. Through deep gorges in

these bounding higher lands some of the rivers cut their way to the

sea, and it is evident that some of the larger rice-plains, both in Imerina

and Betsileo, were at no very remote period the beds of extensive lakes. From the usually brilliantly clear and pure atmosphere, and the




large number of prominent and lofty hills all over the central regions of the island, Madagascar offers especial facilities for map-making, as some well-known points can always be seen from which to get good bearings. What is most wanted is that a few more of these be exactly fixed by astronomical observations.

A few words upon the place-names of Madagascar may conclude this already too lengthy paper.

In the western portions of the island, where the Sakalava tribes are

found, the curious custom of fddy, or tabooing from common use those words or syllables which form the name, or portions of the name, of their chiefs, has had a very unsettling effect upon the nomenclature of

places in that direction. In the Journal of Mr. Hastie, formerly British Resident at the court of Radama L, it is remarked that " the chieftains of the Sakalava are averse that any name or term should approach in sound either the name of themselves or any part of their family. For similar causes the names of rivers, places, and things have suffered so

many changes on the western coast that frequent confusion occurs; for after being prohibited by their chieftains from applying?any particular terms to their accustomed signification, the natives will not acknowledge to have ever known them in their former sense. This practice very much resembles the jealous monopoly of names by the kings and great chiefs of the Pacific Islands."* Of the influence upon the language of the Malagasy tribes exerted by this custom of tabooing certain words, this is not the place to speak, but it may be remarked in passing that it is doubtless a very important factor in the dialectic differences which are found to exist in the language of the various parts of the island.

The above-quoted remarks as to the formerly unsettled character of the nomenclature of places on the western coast, do not, however, apply to the central and eastern portions of the island; and in the names of

mountains, rivers, districts, and towns there is an interesting field of research as yet unexplored, and which will probably yield important information as to the settlement of the country. A cursory glance over a list of village names shows many parallels to English place-names. Thus we have Malagasy

" Sunnysides

" in Ambohibemasoandro, " the

place of much sun " ; " Oxfords," in Ampitanomby; "

Holytowns," in Ambohimasina; " Redlands," in Antanimena ; " Stonehams," in Bevato ; " Blackwaters," in Onimainty ; "

Stonebridges," in Antatezambato, &c.; while the very numerous places called Ambohimanjaka and Ambohitran- driana are the "

Kingstowns " and " Princetowns," of the central pro?

vinces, denoting the village of the headman of many small tribes at a time when the country was still divided into numerous petty kingdoms or chieftaincies.

An inspection of a map of Madagascar shows a curious contrast between the nomenclature of the interior and that of the coast-line.

* Tyerman and Bennet's * Voyages Round the World,' 2nd ed. p. 276.




The former is purely native, as no European power has ever succeeded in

retaining territory for long away from the coast; but the fringe of names

along the sea-line has a considerable European element in it, and throws

interesting light upon the successive periods during which the Madagascar coast was visited in early times by different European nations, as well as upon the attempts made by some of them to plant colonies in various

parts of the island. Besides this, as all surveying and map-making has hitherto been the work of Europeans, and as the naval commanders who

gave many of the names of prominent places were usually unacquainted with the Malagasy language, and consequently knew nothing of the native names of headlands, rivers, and bays, they gave many of them

European names in a very arbitrary fashion, in many cases, however, not the less embodying an historical fact or date. Thus we may find the day of the year on which several of the capes and islands were first discovered by the Portuguese, who here, as elsewhere, followed their usual practice of calling places they discovered by the name of the saint on whose day they were first seen. The most prominent capes bear the names of St. Mary, St. Vincent, St. Thomas, and St. Sebastian, while, as already mentioned, the northernmost cape, since known as Cape Amber, was long named Cape Natal, because discovered on Christmas

Day, and the island itself was long called by them and others, Isola de San Lorenzo, after the saint on whose day it was first seen

by Fernando Soares. The traces of the Portuguese are also left in St.

Augustine's Eiver and Bay, the shoal of Bonaventura, the island of

Juan de Nova, and the fine harbour of Diego Suarez at the extreme north of Madagascar. We find another memorial of the same nation in the name of the chief inlet on the eastern side of the island, Antongil Bay, so called from Antonio Gil, a Portuguese, who first discovered it. Besides the names given above, numerous other saints' names are found

on ancient maps, as Sta. Justina, St. Eomano, Sta. Clara, Sta. Lueia, St. Eoche, and others, but these have mostly been disused by later

geographers. The memory of French occupation of Madagascar is retained in the

words Fort Dauphin, at the extreme south-east; in the name of the small

island of St. Marie's, still held by- them, on the east coast; and in Foule

Pointe, Louisbourg, Port Choiseul, and other places. And lastly, an English element in the map, but probably quite unrecog-

nised by the native inhabitants, is seen in the names given by Captain Owen and others to various points, ports, and islands; as William Pitt

Bay, Liverpool Point, British Sound, Port Croker, and Point Barrow, and in Chatham, Andromache, Barren, Barlow, Crab, Murder, and Grave

Islands; while Owen's surveying ships are both kept in memory in " Barracouta "

Island, and Port " Leven."

Some of the foreign names given to places in Madagascar have been

strangely altered by the Malagasy, both in sound and spelling, so that



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 665'

one hardly recognises in Tbamasina, the native name of Tamatave, the " San Tomaso " of the Portuguese settlers; and still less in Faradofay, the " Fort Dauphin

" of the south, two centuries ago the chief French port and stronghold in the island.

In Madagascar, not less than in European and other countries, place- names will doubtless prove on careful examination to be among the most valuable of ancient historical records. It is said that the progress of the Hovas from the eastern coast to the highlands of the interior can be traced by the remains of the furnaces they made for the smelting of

iron, a manufacture they are believed to have introduced into the

country. In like manner it is probable that a careful examination of the names of places would enable us to understand something of the way in which they and the other Malayo-Polynesian tribes possessed themselves of their present territory. In some parts of the country every hill-top has a special name ; while there is doubtless both an aboriginal element and an African one in the language which is almost certain to have left some traces in the names of localities?mountains, streams, and districts ?if they are only carefully inquired about and noted down. And while we sometimes carelessly ask, " What's in a name?" it will be seen that in this great African island, as well as in other parts of the world, names

form, strange as it may seem, more enduring records than tombs and

temples, or marble and bronze.

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES.

The Victoria Nyanza Mission. ? The Church Missionary Society have received detaiied news regarding the arrival on the borders of

King Mtesa's country of the party sent from England by way of the Mle, of which event they were informed by telegram from Colonel Gordon some weeks ago, as recorded in our September number, p. 590. The party, consisting of the Rev. G. Litchfield and Messrs. Felkin and Pearson, were detained by the illness of the last named on the road between Regiaf and Dufli, on the Upper Nile, and they did not reach Dufli till the 3rd of December. Of the two routes thence to Mruli, one across country direct and the other via Magungo and the Albert Nyanza, they adopted the latter, and after various adventures reached Foweira on the 8th of January. At Kisuma they were met by the Rev. Mr. Wilson, who had come from Uganda with that object. Delayed again by illness, they did not reach Mruli till the 27th of January, whence Mr. Pearson reported on February 2nd (the latest date) that they were to start for Mtesa's capital the next day.?The latest news from Uganda was very favourable. King Mtesa still maintained cordial rela? tions with his European guests, Messrs. Wilson and Mackay, the latter of whom appears to have acquired much influence over the king, to the extent of persuading him to abolish the sale of slaves in his dominions,

No. X.?Oct. 1879.] 2 x



Ati* ftrr -QhB Proceedings of the ftoyal Genaraphtcai Sf>.*iet\- lft7?*.



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History and Present Condition of Our Geographical Knowledge of Madagascar

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